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Digital Estate Planning
Plot End tag Troy and Abed find an abandoned baby on the study room table and immediately begin planning how they will raise it together. Abed offers to take on a job, and Troy begins to cry at the thought of having to stay home while Abed climbs the corporate ladder. The baby's mother then climbs out from under the table, where she was retrieving a dropped toy, and takes the baby out with her. As the mother is leaving, the baby babbles Abed's "cool, cool, cool" catchphrase. Recurring themes Continuity *'Previously': This episode follows up on the death of Pierce's father, Cornelius Hawthorne, which occurred in the earlier Season Three episode "Advanced Gay". *'History lesson': We learn much about Pierce's and Cornelius' past. *'First appearance': Gilbert Lawson makes his debut in this episode as Pierce's illegitimate half-brother. He later returns in the Season Four episode "Paranormal Parentage". *'School song': When Abed saves Hilda onto a flash drive, the song "Greendale is Where I Belong" plays. *Winger speech: Jeff rallies the troops with a speech only for them all to be destroyed by a pack of hippies soon afterwards. *'Discontinuity': The episode end tag features Troy and Abed still students at Greendale despite within the timeline of the show them having been expelled. The end tag had replaced a scripted one which actor Chevy Chase refused to film (See '''Production: End tag controversy' below''). Running gags *'Awww!': Annie coos over the look of their 8-bit avatars and then the hippies in the game. *'Bon apetit': Pierce immediately assumes that Hilda is a lesbian. *'Gay, he's so gay!': Pierce comments that Jeff "did great in there" as the group leaves "Gay Island". *'My other half': Troy is jealous of Abed's relationship with Hilda and in the end tag the two plan to raise a baby together. *Troy and Abed in the Morning!: Troy and Abed sing "Troy and Abed shooting la-va," as they attack Cornelius. Pop culture references *'Product placement': Pierce refers to Hilda as a "St. Paulie's Girl" referencing the mascot and name of the imported beer brand. Razer Nostromo keypads are also visible at the computers the group are using. *'Shout out': Pierce invited actor LeVar Burton but he didn't show up. *'Use your allusion': **Various classic video games are alluded to in this episode. (See main article "Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne" for a complete list) **When Jeff says, "Let's find the Tin Man's heart later," it is a reference to either the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, or the classic Judy Garland film The Wizard of Oz. **Pierce rides an atom bomb into Cornelius, as Major Kong did in the classic 1964 movie Dr. Strangelove. *'Well read': **Gilbert read the Bible to Cornelius in the bath. Ewww. **The text shown of the "legal document" comprising Cornelius' agreement with Gilbert is actually the opening lines of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Meta references *'Résumé': Pierce suggests that his father was into meth. Giancarlo Esposito plays crystal meth kingpin Gustavo Fring in Breaking Bad. When Gilbert mentions that 'family can make a person do crazy things,' it is a reference to why Walter White, Breaking Bad's main character, began cooking crystal meth. Production This episode has the production code 3x22 and was the last one filmed for Season Three. Computer animation studio "Titmouse" handled the video game sequences for this episode. They had previously done the anime inspired section of the episode "Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism". NBC decided to broadcast the last three episodes of the season on May 17, 2012 with "Digital Estate Planning" airing first at 8:00, "First Chang Dynasty" following at 9:00 and "Introduction to Finality" closing out the night at 9:30. End tag controversy The original End Tag scripted for this episode had Abed gave Pierce an edited version of the "Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne" video game that allowed him to get closure with his dad. This clip was never filmed due to Chevy Chase refusing to film the scene. On March 21, 2012 Deadline.com reported the behind the scenes fallout which generated some bad publicity for Harmon, Chase and the show. Later on August 22, 2012, creator Dan Harmon took part in a Reddit discussion and elaborated on what happened: Quotes Category:Season 3 Episodes Category:Community Episodes